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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22758823">White as Snow, Red as Blood, Black as Ebony</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sabby1/pseuds/sabby1'>sabby1</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Animal Death, Blood, Eating Organs, Ebony - Freeform, F/F, Food Poisoning, Happy Ending, M/M, Snow, Strangulation, Temporary Character Death, Torture</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-29 02:21:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,819</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22758823</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sabby1/pseuds/sabby1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A Clizzy variation on the story of Snow White.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Clary Fray/Isabelle Lightwood, Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>White as Snow, Red as Blood, Black as Ebony</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This story came to be because of the Hunter's Moon Discord server and especially the lovely Hika_Hika and Jay. </p>
<p>Hika_Hika: You could write Clizzy with Snow White. Maryse being overly jealous of Izzy's beauty, then Izzy running away to live with her brothers. But in the house didn't live only Alec, Jace and Max. There were also Meliorn, Simon, Raphael and Magnus. When she gets cursed and falls asleep, Clary would come and fall in love and kiss her. Everyone gets happy, even an outrageous Alec almost shouting "DiD YoU kIss MY sISteR???"</p>
<p>I hope you will enjoy reading this as much as I loved writing it. Please leave me a note if you liked it.</p>
<p>I think this works as a fill for femmeslash February?</p>
<h6></h6>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Once upon a time in the middle of a cold winter, while snow flakes fell like downy feathers from a clear blue sky, a beautiful queen sat by an open window framed in the darkest ebony wood. A half-finished piece of embroidery rested atop her heavily pregnant belly.</p>
<p>As she raised her head from the delicate work and brushed her auburn hair aside to look toward the falling snow, she pricked her rosy cheek on the needle in her hand. Three bright red drops of blood fell glistening onto the pristine snow gathered on the window sill.</p>
<p>As the queen beheld the beauty of the bright red blood glistening in the pure white snow, her green eyes lit up with joy.</p>
<p>She thought to herself with a smile on her face, “How I wish for my child to possess a beauty of that nature: white as snow, red as blood, and black as ebony.”</p>
<p>Not long after that day, the queen gave birth to a beautiful daughter, but the joy of her child’s birth was soon followed by the sadness of the queen’s death.</p>
<p>Some years after the queen’s demise, the king took a new wife. She was beautiful, but she was proud and arrogant. She could not stand the thought that any woman should be superior to her.</p>
<p>When she joined the household, she brought with her three of her own children, a fourth on the way, and an ornate mirror framed in purest gold.</p>
<p>The children were shunned to the attic. The mirror was hung in the finest room of the house, which the queen claimed for herself.</p>
<p>It was a magical mirror, bound to truth and beauty.</p>
<p>She would stand in front of it and say, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?”</p>
<p>Invariably, the mirror would reply. “My queen, you are the fairest of them all.”</p>
<p>The queen was filled with joy for the mirror never lied.</p>
<p>Years passed, and the children of the queen grew up alongside the lone daughter of the king.</p>
<p>All except one of the queen’s children took after their mother with skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as ebony.</p>
<p>The lone exemption was her second oldest, a boy she claimed was her own, threatening to cut the throat of anyone who dared to disagree, despite the fact that his hair was as bright as spun gold.</p>
<p>The king’s daughter had taken wholly after her late mother with a complexion of the most delicate blue tit egg, fiery auburn hair, and eyes of crystal green.</p>
<p>The girls were as close as a couple of birds in their nest. Seldom would you see one without the other, and if one strayed too far, the other would give chase and call out until they were reunited.</p>
<p>As the years went on, the queen’s cruelty grew. Unbeknownst to all but her, the mirror had begun to change its answer.</p>
<p>“My queen, you are the fairest, true, but soon another will be fairer than you.”  </p>
<p>Each time the mirror answered thusly, the queen’s anger grew, stoking her cruelty toward everyone around her.</p>
<p>One day, her eldest son found true love and with it the courage to leave. He absconded in the dark of night and took the youngest boy with him.</p>
<p>The queen flew into a violent rage, only consoled by the fact that her chosen favorite, the golden son, remained behind.</p>
<p>The girls sheltered each other from the queen’s rage as much as they could. They hid like birds in unreachable grooves and built their nest in the furthest nook and cranny of the attic.</p>
<p>It would not keep them safe.</p>
<p>On a bright summer morning, the queen asked her mirror, “Mirror, mirror on the wall. Who is the fairest of them all?”</p>
<p>The mirror replied, “You, my queen, are fair, true, but your daughter, Isabelle, is a thousand times fairer than you.”</p>
<p>Green with envy, filled with poisonous hatred, the queen screamed in rage.</p>
<p>Her ire only grew as she couldn’t find sleep or feel hunger for anything other than the mirror’s original answer.</p>
<p>She called for her golden son, embraced him tightly, and spoke.</p>
<p>“Jace, my love, my precious boy. Whom do you love most in this world?”</p>
<p>Her son replied without hesitation. “You, Mother.”</p>
<p>“Then listen to me, my love, for I need you to save me. I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. I can’t live or breathe until you do what you must to free me from the curse I suffer. Believe me, it’s the only way.”</p>
<p>“What is it, mother?”</p>
<p>“Find your sister, Isabelle. Take her into the forest. Kill her and bring me her liver and lungs to heal me from this wretched curse. Will you do that for me, my son?”</p>
<p>Her golden child did not protest. He found the girls in the attic and tore them from each other’s arms.</p>
<p>The girls screamed and cried and begged, but he would not listen. The king’s daughter threw herself at the queen’s son, first in despair, then in blind rage. She threatened to kill him where he stood.</p>
<p>The golden son held firm and said, “I must do this. Believe me, it’s the only way.”</p>
<p>He cast the king’s daughter aside and forced his beloved sister astride a horse to take her to the forest.</p>
<p>The queen’s daughter was no fool. She knew of their mother’s jealousy.</p>
<p>As they rode through the darkness of the forest, she turned to look over her shoulder.</p>
<p>“She asked you to kill me.”</p>
<p>“Yes.”</p>
<p>“But you will not do that.”</p>
<p>“No.”</p>
<p>They rode through the day and half of the night, deeper and deeper into the forest, across the mountain ridge, until they came upon a small house.</p>
<p>As the golden son dismounted the horse and helped his sister to the ground, the door opened.</p>
<p>The queen’s first-born son stepped outside in the company of his love whose warm complexion made them appear like a herald of summer chasing the specter of winter.</p>
<p>“Alec! Magnus!”</p>
<p>The queen’s daughter threw herself into the arms of her oldest brother.</p>
<p>Her brother embraced her tightly, but his eyes were on the golden son who was mounting his horse once more.</p>
<p>“You still return to her?”</p>
<p>“I must. Believe me, it’s the only way.”</p>
<p>The queen’s first-born accepted the answer with a grim expression and a single nod.</p>
<p>The golden son returned to the queen, but not before he had stopped in the brightest part of the forest and killed a fawn. He cut the liver and lungs from the animal and carried them back with him.</p>
<p>Upon his arrival, the queen bade the cook prepare the organs as a meal. As the king’s daughter sat and watched, the queen ate the lungs and liver, convinced they belonged to Isabelle.</p>
<p>Deep in the forest, beyond the mountain ridge, the queen’s daughter found herself in her brother’s little house, overwhelmed with curiosity.</p>
<p>The dwelling was small, but it was tidy and neat, filled with all the necessities. There was a long table with an equally long bench along each side. On the white linen surface sat eight plates. Each plate had its own fork, knife, spoon, and cup.</p>
<p>Along the wall sat seven beds, one next to the other, made up with snow white sheets.</p>
<p>“Why?”</p>
<p>Her oldest brother exchanged a glance with his love, before he turned back to her.</p>
<p>“We have been expecting you.”</p>
<p>The front door burst open, spilling loud voices and their owners into the warm space of the house.</p>
<p>“How are you still completely incompetent at the hunt? If it were not for me, you would starve.”</p>
<p>“It’s not my fault! My eyesight is bad.”</p>
<p>“So is Maxwell’s, but he still manages to bring home game.”</p>
<p>“Alec taught me well.”</p>
<p>“Well, my bow’s sight is off.”</p>
<p>“It is not. I would never craft an inferior weapon.”</p>
<p>“Idiot. You should know better than to lie around Meliorn.”</p>
<p>The queen’s daughter stared in awe as the newcomers noticed her presence.</p>
<p>“Who is she?”</p>
<p>“She’s pretty.”</p>
<p>“I have to agree with Simon. Her beauty is beyond compare.”</p>
<p>“Isabelle!”</p>
<p>The queen’s youngest child threw himself into his sister’s arms. Unlike the last time they had seen each other, he was tall enough to rest his head on her bosom.</p>
<p>“Are you here to stay?”</p>
<p>“Yes,” she said. “I believe I am.”</p>
<p>One of the newcomers, a man with dark curly hair and fierce brown eyes looked her up and down.</p>
<p>“Are you going to make yourself useful while you are here? Can you cook, clean, sew, and make the beds?”</p>
<p>“Don’t be rude,” said his companion with equally curly hair but kind brown eyes that twinkled with mirth. “Don’t mind Raphael. You’re more than welcome here, even if you can’t sew or cook.”</p>
<p>“I’m glad,” she said, truly relieved. “But I’ll be more than happy to clean and make the beds.”</p>
<p>During the day, the men went out to work in the nearby mine and hunt for food in the forest.</p>
<p>Isabelle was left on her own, but they never left her without warning her six times over.</p>
<p>“Don’t wander around.”</p>
<p>“He means stay near the house.”</p>
<p>“Mother will soon know you’re here. She will come for you.”</p>
<p>“The wards will protect you inside the house as long as you don’t open the door.”</p>
<p>“Please, be careful.”</p>
<p>“I sincerely advise you to heed your brothers’ words.”</p>
<p>The queen for her part, content in the thought that she had eaten Isabelle’s liver and lungs, once again sought the flattery of her mirror.</p>
<p>“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?”</p>
<p>The mirror replied, “My queen, you are the fairest here, true, but, beyond the mountains, at her brother’s house, Isabelle is a thousand times fairer than you.”  </p>
<p>The queen gasped in shock. For the mirror could not lie, and so it was clear that her golden son had betrayed her. Isabelle was not dead.</p>
<p>The queen screamed for her golden son once more, but he did not heed her call.</p>
<p>He mounted his horse and rode fast and hard into the forest to join his siblings beyond the mountain ridge.</p>
<p>The king’s daughter was left to suffer the rage of the cruel queen alone. She hid like a bird in her lonely nest in the furthest nook of the attic, and swore that one day, she would take revenge for her love.</p>
<p>The queen, heedless of anything but herself, spent days and nights plotting her next move to kill Isabelle and force the mirror to give its original answer.</p>
<p>When she had devised a way, she covered her face in dirt and dressed in peasant clothes until she was indistinguishable from an old lady selling simple wares.</p>
<p>Then she set out into the forest and across the mountain ridge to the house of her first-born son.</p>
<p>Upon her arrival, she knocked on the door and called, “Beautiful wares for sale, for sale!”</p>
<p>Isabelle looked out the window and called back, “Good day, dear woman, what do you have for sale?”</p>
<p>“Good wares, beautiful wares,” answered the old woman. “Beautiful bodice laces in all colors.” She held up one lace braided from colorful silk.</p>
<p>‘Surely, I can let this honest woman inside,’ thought Isabelle, so she opened the door and bought the beautiful lace.</p>
<p>“Child,” said the old woman, “look at you! Come, let me properly tighten those laces.”</p>
<p>Isabelle had no mistrust and stepped in front of the old woman to let her tighten the laces.</p>
<p>But the old woman pulled them so quickly and so hard that Isabelle could no longer breathe, and she fell to the floor as if dead.</p>
<p>“You’re the fairest no more!” said the queen and hurried away.</p>
<p>Not long after, the men of the house returned from their day’s work, shocked to find their beloved Isabelle on the floor. And she didn’t stir or move, as if she were dead.</p>
<p>“The idiot opened the door!”</p>
<p>“She had to have had a good reason.”</p>
<p>“Perhaps she thought one of us had returned?”</p>
<p>“Isabelle!”</p>
<p>“Don’t look, Max.”</p>
<p>“Are those new bodice laces? They look far too tight.”</p>
<p>“Mother,” said the golden son in a tone grim as death and stepped forward to cut through the laces.  </p>
<p>Isabelle took a heaving breath and slowly regained her bearings. When she told the men what had happened, her words confirmed the golden son’s suspicion.</p>
<p>“The huckster was none other than the queen in disguise,” he said.</p>
<p>“Don’t open the door again, idiot!”</p>
<p>“Don’t yell at my sister!”</p>
<p>“She needs to be more careful!”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the evil woman had returned to her home and locked herself inside her room.</p>
<p>She stepped in front of the mirror and said, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?”</p>
<p>The mirror replied as before, “My queen, you are the fairest here, true, but, beyond the mountains, at her brother’s house, Isabelle is a thousand times fairer than you.” </p>
<p>Hearing those words, all the blood in her veins froze with shock. Obviously, Isabelle had returned to life.</p>
<p>“Now then,” said the queen in cold blood, “I shall find a way to destroy you.”</p>
<p>Using the art of witchcraft, in which she had been taught, the queen created a poisoned comb.</p>
<p>She disguised herself as an old woman once more, different in appearance from the huckster, and set out through the forest and across the mountain ridge to the house of her first-born son.</p>
<p>She knocked on the door and called out, “Good wares, for sale, for sale!”</p>
<p>Isabelle looked through the window and said, “Be on your way. I am not allowed to let anyone in.”</p>
<p>“Surely, you’re allowed to look?” said the old woman and lifted the comb for Isabelle to see.</p>
<p>It was so lovely that Isabelle succumbed and opened the door after all.</p>
<p>With the sale complete, the old woman said, “Now, allow me to comb your beautiful hair.”</p>
<p>Poor Isabelle held no guile in her heart and acquiesced, but the moment the comb touched her hair its poison took effect. Isabelle fell to the floor as if dead.</p>
<p>“You paragon of beauty,” said the spiteful queen, “now you are done for!” and walked away with a cackle.</p>
<p>Fortunately, evening came soon and the men returned home. When they found Isabelle prone on the floor, they knew just whom to blame.</p>
<p>“Idiot!”</p>
<p>“Poor thing.”</p>
<p>“The queen must have gotten to her again.”</p>
<p>“Why does our mother hate Isabelle so much?”</p>
<p>“Because she’s a spiteful old…”</p>
<p>“Language!”</p>
<p>“…witch.”</p>
<p>“Is that a new comb?”</p>
<p>The moment they pulled the comb from her hair, Isabelle sat up and took a deep breath. The men warned her again to take heed and never to open the door for anyone.</p>
<p>Locked in her room, the queen stood in front of the mirror and said, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?”</p>
<p>The mirror once again replied, “My queen, you are the fairest here, true, but, beyond the mountains, at her brother’s house, Isabelle is still a thousand times fairer than you.” </p>
<p>As she heard this answer, the queen trembled with rage.</p>
<p>“Isabelle will die,” she screamed, “even if it costs my own life!”</p>
<p>Consequently, she returned to her witchcraft and created a poisonous apple. On the outside, the fruit was perfectly beautiful, one cheek was a crisp white while the other glowed a bright red that spurred lustful hunger in anyone who saw it. But whosoever took a bite was fated to die on the spot.</p>
<p>As soon as the apple was finished, the queen disguised herself as an old farmer’s wife and ventured once more into the forest and across the mountain ridge to the house of her first-born son.</p>
<p>When she knocked on the door, Isabelle stuck her head out the window and said, “I’m sorry, I cannot let anyone inside. My brothers forbade it, and Raphael will surely kill me if I do it again.”</p>
<p>“No matter to me,” said the old woman, “I’ll get rid of my apples one way or another. Here, you may have one as a gift.”</p>
<p>“No,” said Isabelle, “I’m not allowed to accept anything.”</p>
<p>“Are you afraid it’s poisoned?” The old woman laughed. “See here, I will cut the apple in half. You eat the red side, and I’ll eat the white.”</p>
<p>The apple had been crafted so artfully that only the red side held poison.</p>
<p>Isabelle beheld the red half with lustful hunger, and as she watched the farmer’s wife eat the other half, she could no longer resist and accepted the poisoned fruit.</p>
<p>No sooner had she taken a bite when she fell to the floor, dead.</p>
<p>The queen laughed loud and harsh, overjoyed by her success.</p>
<p>“White as snow, red as blood, and black as ebony. This time, your men won’t be able to save you.”</p>
<p>She returned home and asked her mirror, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?”</p>
<p>The mirror finally responded, “My queen, you are the fairest of them all.”</p>
<p>Her envious heart finally found peace.</p>
<p>When the men returned to their house that night, they found Isabelle once more on the floor. No breath came from her mouth, no motion from her body. She was dead.</p>
<p>They lifted her gently and searched for poison on her body. They opened her laces, and combed her hair, and washed her with water and blessed her with wine but nothing helped at all. Their beloved Isabelle stayed dead.</p>
<p>The men placed her gently on a gurney and grieved for her and cried for three whole days.</p>
<p>On the fourth day, they wanted to bury her, but she was still as beautiful as ever, and her cheeks were still red with fresh blood like any living young girl.</p>
<p>“Her beauty is still beyond compare.”</p>
<p>“Like her idiocy?”</p>
<p>“You can hide your grief behind anger, but it’s still there.”</p>
<p>“Do we have to put her in the dirty ground?”</p>
<p>“It’s the only way.”</p>
<p>“Perhaps this calls for something a little more unique?”</p>
<p>“What did you have in mind, love?”</p>
<p>They paid handsomely to have an artisan fashion a casket of clear glass, so that you could see beautiful Isabelle from all sides. They gently laid her to rest, and wrote her name in gold letters along the edge. They carried the casket to a clearing at the foot of the mountain.</p>
<p>One of the men always stood watch. As the days turned into weeks, Isabelle’s body did not wither. It looked as if she were merely asleep, forever white as snow, red as blood, and black as ebony.</p>
<p>Even the animals came to mourn poor Isabelle at the clearing where she lay in her casket. First an owl, then a raven, and at last a turtle dove.</p>
<p>Soon after, a more peculiar bird appeared at the edge of the clearing. Her complexion was that of a delicate blue tit egg, her hair was fiery red, and her eyes were a crystal clear green.</p>
<p>Unbeknownst to everyone, the king’s daughter had watched the evil queen come and go with growing suspicion.</p>
<p>Like a tiny bird, the girl had finally slipped through a broken crack and hidden herself inside the wall to the queen’s room.</p>
<p>When the queen had set out with the poisoned apple, the king’s daughter had followed her, but she had gotten lost in the forest.</p>
<p>For weeks she had wandered, calling out the name of her beloved Isabelle, until she had come across a turtle dove that sang so sweetly she could not but follow after it, for turtle doves were symbols of true love.</p>
<p>Now, the king’s daughter approached the casket with a gleam of determination and hope in her eyes.</p>
<p>The man on watch was the queen’s golden son. She barely spared him a glance as she removed the lid of the casket and looked down at her beloved Isabelle.</p>
<p>“I found you!”</p>
<p>As the golden son watched in surprise, the king’s daughter lifted Isabelle into her arms, embraced her fiercely, and drummed a small fist heartily against her fragile back.</p>
<p>“Spit it out!”</p>
<p>Jolted by the hearty thumps, the poisonous apple jumped from Isabelle’s throat and landed on the rocky ground.</p>
<p>Isabelle’s eyes opened, and she returned the fierce embrace.</p>
<p>“You found me!”</p>
<p>The girls shared tears of joy and their lips met in an ardent kiss.</p>
<p>The golden son watched with a knowing smile on his face.</p>
<p>They returned to the house and the men stood in awe and wept with joy at the sight.</p>
<p>“But how?”</p>
<p>“It was Clary.”</p>
<p>“What did she do?”</p>
<p>As the king’s daughter shared the story of her journey, the girls never moved out of each other’s arms. Once again they were like birds in a nest, close, and safe, and warm. When she was finished, she placed a gentle kiss on Isabelle’s lips.</p>
<p>The snow-white face of the queen’s first-born son turned as red as blood at the sight.</p>
<p>“Did you just kiss my sister?!”</p>
<p>“Oh, darling, surely, this cannot come as a surprise?”</p>
<p>“Idiot.”</p>
<p>“Don’t be rude.”</p>
<p>“The blessing of true love does not discriminate.”</p>
<p>“Does that mean Clary will stay with us, too?”</p>
<p>“She must. It’s the only way we will keep Isabelle.”</p>
<p>“I think this calls for a proper celebration.”</p>
<p>Shortly after, invitations were sent out to announce the joyous occasion of not one, but two royal weddings in a beautiful clearing in the middle of the forest.</p>
<p>The evil queen was also offered an invitation. She dressed in her finest clothes and stepped in front of her mirror.</p>
<p>“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?”</p>
<p>The mirror replied. “My queen, you are the fairest here, true, but the bride-to-be is a thousand times fairer than you.”</p>
<p>The evil queen uttered the vilest curse and shook with fury. She felt a terrible, terrible fright. She did not want to go to the wedding, but suspicion left no room for peace in her heart and she needed to see it confirmed. She had to meet this bride-to-be.</p>
<p>As she stepped into the clearing, she recognized Isabelle, holding the hands of the king’s vanished daughter.</p>
<p>Next to the girls, her oldest son stood proudly beside the man who had bewitched him several years prior.</p>
<p>The sight of her golden boy and her youngest son among the guests filled the queen with so much rage and fear, she stood frozen among the crowd.</p>
<p>With a snap of his fingers, her first-born son’s love summoned a pair of iron boots in front of her feet, heated to bright glowing orange.</p>
<p>The evil queen was made to step into them and forced to dance at the wedding until she dropped dead on the ground. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>The End</p>
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